BHAGAVAD-GITA 3:40

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 3:40

 

indriyani mano buddhir

asyadhisthanam ucyate

etair vimohayaty esa

jnanam avrtya dehinam

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

indriyani--the senses; manah--the mind; buddhih--the intelligence;

asya--of this lust; adhisthanam--sitting place; ucyate--is called;

etaih--by all these; vimohayati--bewilders; esah--this lust;

jnanam--knowledge; avrt ya--covering; dehinam--of the embodied.

 

TRANSLATION

 

The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of

this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living

entity and bewilders him.

 

PURPORT

 

The enemy has captured different strategic positions in the body of

the conditioned soul, and therefore Lord Krsna is giving hints of

those places, so that one who wants to conquer the enemy may know

where he can be found. Mind is the center of all the activities of the

senses, and thus when we hear about sense objects the mind generally

becomes a reservoir of all ideas of sense gratification; and, as a

result, the mind and the senses become the repositories of lust. Next,

the intelligence department becomes the capital of such lustful

propensities. Intelligence is the immediate next-door neighbor of the

spirit soul. Lusty intelligence influences the spirit soul to acquire

the false ego and identify itself with matter, and thus with the mind

and senses. The spirit soul becomes addicted to enjoying the material

senses and mistakes this as true happiness. This false identification

of the spirit soul is very nicely explained in the Srimad-Bhagavatam

(10.84.13):

 

yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke

sva-dhih kalatradisu bhauma ijya-dhih

yat-tirtha-buddhih salile na karhicij

janesv abhijnesu sa eva go-kharah

 

"A human being who identifies this body made of three elements with his

self, who considers the by-products of the body to be his kinsmen, who

considers the land of birth worshipable, and who goes to the place of

pilgrimage simply to take a bath rather than meet men of

transcendental knowledge there, is to be considered like an ass or a

cow.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.